Take the 10 and Walk Around

Paris, France is a place that people dream to visit, and I was fortunate enough to live and go to school there for five months. I lived in the Seventh Arrondissement which is known to be one of Paris’ most desirable neighborhoods. It is located in the heart of Paris, containing prestigious Parisian neighborhoods and is home to several monuments, one being the Eiffel Tower. My apartment’s address was 72 Rue de Sevres, which is pronounced ‘roo de sev.’ I lived on the first floor in a three bedroom two bathroom apartment with five other girls. The front of the apartment overlooked bakeries, cheese shops, and quaint cafes and the back of the apartment looked into a courtyard and a Evangelical Baptist Church.

The people in my neighborhood were mostly middle or upper-middle class white families. The parents dressed in a sophisticated and fashionable style and so were their kids. The kids walked in a pack to school, and the parents followed behind them. The boys’ hair was slicked back, and they all wore blazers and khakis. The girls’ hair was in braids or tied back in bows, and they wore dresses that covered their knees. The families looked like models from a J Crew magazine, which was extremely intimidating but entertaining to watch. After the parents dropped their kids off at school, they all scattered to different cafes and sat outside on the patios and enjoyed an espresso with a cigarette. That was the routine every morning, five days a week. At the end of the school day, the nannies would pick up the kids. The nannies were an eclectic group, their ages ranged from mid-twenties to late sixties, and they were either White, Filipino, or Asian.

There were two Metro stations by my apartment: Duroc and Vaneau. Duroc was my favorite metro station because it had line 10 which took me straight to school without needing to transfer to another line. Duroc reeked of cigarettes and sewage, the white subway tiles were covered in graffiti and urine, and the homeless men and women walked around shaking cups with coins in your face asking you for money. The station is a maze, several twisting and winding tunnels are crammed with hundreds of people hustling to their jobs. The Line 10 subway is painted teal green around the area of the windows, and the middle to bottom half of the subway is a dingy white.

The worst time to ride the Metro was at eight in the morning and six at night because that was rush hour. The moment when the subway doors opened was terrifying. It was every man and women for themselves to get a spot on the crowded train so they wouldn’t have to wait for the next one. Everyone shoved their forearms to make room and pushed their bodies through the small slivers of space. I crammed my body into the sea of people and my face always ended up against the back of an old man or my nose was nestled in some lady’s hair. In the mornings, being packed like sardines didn’t bother me because everyone was fresh and ready for the day. But in the afternoon, the subway was steamy, everyone had cigarette breathe, and whiffs of B.O. wafted in the air.

My stop for school was Varenne. Varenne was in front of Les Invalides, the home of Napoleon I’s tomb. It is a grand monument, surrounded by large parks, open streets, and gardens. Typically, Parisian streets are narrow, packed with buildings, and lacked sunlight, so walking through this open area with the was like a breath of fresh air.

I used the metro almost every day, so I was able to see different parts of Paris and learn the different characteristics of the arrondissements. When I traveled to the 10th and 2nd arrondissements I learned they are not places for a young American girl to be walking in at night. It is home to the prostitutes of Paris. Every twenty feet there was a lady dressed in a promiscuous black outfit and aggressive drunk French men who would verbally harass the prostitutes and other women who walked along the sidewalk. The 6th arrondissement felt like the 7th arrondissement. It was filled with high-end neighborhoods and fancy cafes. The 5th arrondissement, also known as the Latin Quarter, is brimmed with students who attend universities and prestigious high schools. The 1st arrondissement is a tourist attraction with famous streets, museums, and is home to the Tuileries garden. An extravagant garden in front of the Louvre that stretches for miles, surrounded by gardens, sculptures, fountains, and small parks. When people think of Paris, they imagine the Eiffel tower and croissants, but it offers much more than that. There are cities within Paris that are home to diverse and eclectic communities.

When I didn’t take the metro, I walked everywhere. As I walked, I observed everything and took in every aspect of the city. I discerned the different types of people scattered throughout the city. The affluent individuals stay in their refined neighborhoods, and the homeless men and women live in those areas because that’s their best chance to get money or food. The pickpocketers and the people who tend to manipulate and steal from tourists remain in the densely populated areas with the famous monuments.

Another thing I took note of was the Architecture. Even though the architecture may seem the same, the buildings all tell a different story. If a building looks like it is leaning forward, that means it was built during the medieval period, but if they are more geometric and homogenous, it was made during the Haussmann period. Walking every morning and night throughout Paris was like taking a lesson on Parisian culture because every time I went outside I learned and experienced something new.

Walking and taking the Metro around the city of love helped me understand why Paris is so unique. Paris has safe and dangerous places, wealthy and poor people, and beautiful and grimy areas, and it is because of this wide range of varieties that it makes it a whole and place that is like no other in the world.